Syracuse football team goes blue-collar with bruising backs and physical offensive line

Syracuse football tailback Adonis Ameen-Moore bulls through a host of Temple tacklers for a first down during the third quarter of SU's 38-20 victory today in Philadelphia.Frank Ordoñez / The Post-Standard

Philadelphia -- Six days earlier they had painted a masterpiece. Friday morning they painted a house. The result was the same.

Slap another coat of “W” on the Syracuse football schedule.

The Orange (7-5, 5-2) won for the fifth time in six weeks, climbing out of a 10-0 first-quarter hole to defeat Temple 38-20 before a crowd announced at 22,317 at Lincoln Financial Field. The big early deficit was about the only thing the game had in common with a 31-27 stunner at Missouri on Nov. 17 that made the team bowl eligible for the second time in three seasons. Quarterback Ryan Nassib and slot receiver Alec Lemon were spectacular against the Tigers, with Nassib passing for 385 yards and Lemon making 12 receptions for 244 and two touchdowns.

Friday, facing a Temple defense determined to take Lemon out of the equation by bracketing him with two defenders, the dynamic duo was pedestrian. Nassib finished with 215 passing yards and one touchdown and Lemon with five receptions for 74 yards.

Out with the artists and in with the house painters, a blue-collar backfield trio of juniors Jerome Smith and Prince-Tyson Gulley and sophomore Adonis Ameen-Moore. Rolling behind an offensive line that balanced superb protection of Nassib with a physical mean streak in the run game, the backs combined for 237 yards and three touchdowns on 43 carries (5.5-yard average). Only one of the 33 carries, by Smith in the fourth quarter, resulted in lost yardage (a yard).

Temple’s chances were supposed to hinge on its ability to cash in on the talent of senior tailback Montel Harris, who was coming off a Big East-record 351-yard, seven-TD game at Army. Instead, it was SU that wore down the stubborn Owls (4-7, 2-5), scoring the game’s final three TDs all on the ground and finishing with 260 yards rushing overall, second this season only to the 278 it piled up in a 45-26 upset of Louisville on Nov. 10.

“I just think it’s the mentality we’ve been able to build,” left tackle Justin Pugh said. “If they take away the pass we’re going to run the ball. If they take away the run we’re going to pass it. You’ve seen it. Everyone’s contributed week in and week out.”

Friday the contribution came from a painter who had spent little time this season with a brush in his hand. Ameen-Moore (5-foot-11, 239 pounds) had carried only 20 times all season for 51 yards, relegated to duty in SU’s short-yardage offense when he wasn’t sidelined a couple games by a lower-leg injury.

Prince Tyson-Gulley runs for a first down during fourth-quarter action against Temple at Lincoln Financial Field Friday. Frank Ordoñez / The Post-Standard

“In my room it’s my brother’s keepers,” Wheatley said of his backs. “We do it for each other. We do it as one group. There’s no pouting. When his time comes, his time comes. When he steps in he’s going to perform as if he had been performing since day 1. That’s the way you have to do it.”

Ameen-Moore did, responding with 10 carries for 57 yards and two touchdowns, each a career high.

“I can’t think about getting into a rhythm,” he said, describing the attitude a third-string back must possess. “I have to go make something happen.”

He did. Ameen-Moore gave Syracuse its first lead of the game when he burst through a huge hole opened by guard Rob Trudo and tackle Sean Hickey on the right side and plowed 18 yards into the end zone midway through the second quarter. He gave the Orange the lead for good with a 1-yard blast late in the third that was more typical of his contribution in the last seven games (he didn’t play at all in the first four).

“It’s a testament to him,” Wheatley said. “It is hard for some guys to go through a season and not get the carries they want. He understands he is a quality back who can be playing someplace else, but he gave me no problems. He did everything he was supposed to do. He watched film, he was diligent in the weight room, he was diligent at practice. That goes to show you the quality and character of Adonis Ameen-Moore. He came out (today) and you would have sworn he’s played since day 1.”

Pugh said Temple’s defenders weren’t buying it early, a notion Ameen-Moore soon forced them to abandon.

“He’s a big back,” Pugh said. “I remember we were out there and they were kind of making fun of him, saying ‘Oh, that kid can’t doing anything.’ And we kept feeding him the ball and feeding him the ball, and he kept running them over and running them over. I think they finally got the point toward the end that they shouldn’t take this guy lightly.”

Nor, Wheatley said, should any opponent take lightly an SU ground game that has averaged 216.2 yards per game over the last six games. It is no coincidence that Nassib has thrown 13 TD passes and has been sacked only three times in that stretch.

“If we can get touches (carries) and pound the ball and pound the defensive line with our offensive line it takes the steam out of the pass rush,” Wheatley said.

That is exactly what happened today. Smith surpassed 1,000 yards for the season with 96 on 20 carries (4.8 ypc). Gulley shook off an early fumble and added 83 yards and a touchdown on 13 carriers (6.4). And Ameen-Moore enjoyed a career day.

“That’s the way we want it,” Wheatley said. “It’s business as usual.”

It wasn’t Masterpiece Theater. It was house-painting. But the result was the same – another coat of W.